The course in Classical Physics, in priniciple, should have taught you enough to understand work that has lead to several Nobel Prizes in Physics. I am listing a few of them — the Nobel Prize site offers a wealth of details (see the press release as well as advanced information) on the prizes.

1. In a conversation with Prof. Balakrishnan during this semester(Fall 2009), he mentioned to me that there are two kinds of teachers — those that dazzle and those that empower (students). At that moment, I realized that most of my frustration as a teacher lie in my (perceived?) failure to empower.